Favreau recalled the inception of the series, saying that he wrote several episodes of the series before Disney had even hired him. "I wrote four of the episodes before I even had a deal," he recalled, "because I wanted to do this but only if they wanted to do the version that I wanted to do."

He also spoke about the evolution of visual effects, and how The Mandalorian builds on what was done on the Star Wars prequels. Favreau told THR, "I would argue that the prequels are — and [George] Lucas in general is — the bedrock that all of this is built on. He is the first person that had digital photography, he was the first person to do completely CG characters. The whole notion of not having even a print [version of the film], of having everything be 0's and 1's, was all George."

He went on to say, "When George came to our set and visited The Mandalorian, he said, "Oh, we did this," and what he meant was, “We had green screen and we were building small sets and expanding upon it.” Now, we have video walls, NVIDIA video cards that allow a refresh rate that allows you to do in-camera effects, we're in there taking advantage of the cutting-edge stuff."

Favreau also spoke about how being executive producer on the series differed from his experience as a director of blackbuster films (Iron Man, The Lion King). He explained, "The TV model allowed me to be an executive producer [on Mandalorian], which allowed me to, on my own time, write everything. It's a lot like being a chef. You write the menu, you staff up with people who are great at what they do, you oversee and help guide the people who are actually cooking the food, working the line, and then at the end, you plate."

Production began on The Mandalorianback in October, with shooting taking place in southern California, and wrapped in February. The series is set following the events of Return of the Jedi and follows the adventures of a "lone gunfighter", played by Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal, as he navigates the galaxy in the post-Empire/early days of the New Republic. The series also stars Gina Carano (Deadpool), Nick Nolte (Affliction), Carl Weathers (Predator), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), and Omid Abtahi (American Gods).

The first season is expected to consist of eight episodes. The episodes are written by Favreau and directed by Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Bryce Dallas Howard, Deborah Chow (Better Call Saul), and Rick Famuyiwa (Dope). The series is executive produced by Favreau and Filoni, as well as Colin Wilson and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Episodes debut on Disney+ on November 12th.

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